Life as a Boingo Intern: Part 2

It’s now week seven and I’m happy to report that I’m fully integrated and settled in. Now even more so than before, I feel like a valued member of the marketing team. Being immersed in meaningful projects, sitting in on important meetings, going out for drinks with the marketing department (and ordering water because the drinking age is still 21 for some odd reason), and even taking part in photo shoots, I have nothing but positive experiences to share.

Let me start with one of my highlights over the past few weeks. I had the opportunity to sit down with Dave Hagan, our CEO for an hour. I just emailed him asking to meet with the intention of picking his brain and gaining some valuable insights into the business, his career path, and learning as much as I possibly could from him. I had no expectations of him even responding to my outreach, much less accepting my proposed meeting. However, to my pleasant surprise, Dave happily volunteered a piece of his busy day to speak with me. I learned a ton of cool things about the business. For instance, there are no corner offices and all offices are the same size to promote equality within the office and to emphasize that a job title does not place someone on a higher pedestal than someone else. And that is only a mild manifestation of the equality that Dave wanted to show off in the new office space: he was pushing for no offices at all, but eventually offices prevailed. Dave also had some worthy advice to give me. He stressed that I should not necessarily let money dictate my career decisions. Rather, I should follow the leads that are most aligned with my interests and that have the most potential for success and the furthering of my career path. He noted that he took a position that paid half the amount of another one and that it was one of the best choices he’s made in his career. Additionally, Dave advised that I be open and willing to do any job that I am tasked with and to offer my assistance wherever and whenever possible, no matter how menial the undertaking may seem.

I have been doing exactly that here at Boingo so far, always asking my colleagues if there is anything that I can help with when I have run out of things to do. Whether it be getting coffee or donuts for the department, updating email contact lists in Salesforce, formatting and updating old decks for a media sales presentation, giving my feedback on outgoing marketing materials or new products, or researching speaking opportunities for executives within the company, I am more than happy to do it. I realize that interns are often assigned tedious work, which is why I am even more thrilled that Boingo has given me the chance to work on a wide variety of worthwhile projects.

It has been a tremendous learning experience for me thus far. Observing how different people and parts of the business interact to form Boingo is fascinating. My superiors have always told me this, but it is really captivating to witness the idea that everyone must pull their equal weight to produce a final product that is cohesive and successful. I am honored to be a part of it and can truly say that I haven’t just been going, I’ve been boingoing.

Until next time,

Jeremy

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About Melody Demel

Melody is Senior Manager, PR for Boingo Wireless, where she is responsible for media relations, brand building and thought leadership initiatives. Melody is a die-hard Nebraska Cornhuskers fan and retired NCAA DI college field hockey player.